Conventionally, image input devices which is used when pieces of information data about paper media or negative and positive films, and so forth are digitized and read into a personal computer (PC) or the like include devices, for example, an imaging scanner and a multifunction peripheral. Among these, there is a device in which an application program on a host PC connected to the device is activated upon receiving an event that occurs by pressing a button of a device main body, and the application program requests a control program (also referred to as a driver program) for controlling the image input device to input an image, and the image input device performs an operation of image input by an instruction from the control program that has received the request.
As a method for implementing such a series of operations, Windows (registered trademark) Imaging Acquisition (hereinafter WIA), or Still Image Service (hereinafter STI), in Windows (registered trademark) as a Microsoft's operating system (OS) is prepared as functions of the OS side. There can be specified an operation at the time an event occurs by pressing a button on the image input device by using these functions. When the button on the device main body is pressed by an operation of a user on the image input device, event information is notified via the WIA or the STI of the OS. In Windows (registered trademark), by describing the event information in an information (INF) file of the control program and installing the INF file, an event when the button on the device main body is pressed can be automatically registered on the OS. The registration can be also performed by similarly describing a command referred to as co-installer on the INF file, and executing the co-installer which a vender originally has created. In either method the control program performs the registration in accordance with specifications and functions which the OS side provides. Moreover, there is also equipped an event management program for causing the application program to be automatically executed at the time the event is detected.
Further, by declaring that the application program side is a program corresponding to the event, it is possible to cause the OS to recognize a program selectable at the time the event occurs. As a result, when the button of the device main body is pressed, it is only necessary to notify from the device side to the host PC side of the event of the button pressing. In subsequent operations, the application program on the host PC connected to the device controls the device using the control program, and implements an image input (for example, if the image input device is an image scanner, reading of image) by the similar configuration to performing image reading by normal operation of the host PC.
As a technique for associating an application program which is activated when an event of the image input device occurs, there is a method for detecting an application program which has been already installed, when the control program is installed and associating it with the event. (See U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,304).
The method discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,304 is predicated on that the application program has been already installed when the control program is installed. This is because, a task for specifying an operation when an event occurs by pressing a button of the image input device according to the specification and function which the OS side provides as described above, is to be performed by the control program using the INF file or the co-installer. This is further because, conventionally, when a user performs an installation setup of the image input device, first, software including the application programs have been installed from its accompanying media (e.g., a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM)/a digital versatile disk (DVD)/a memory) and subsequently connection between the image input device and the host PC is established. Therefore, installation of the control program is completed after the connection between the image input device and the host PC has been established, and thus the application program corresponding to the event of the input device has been already installed. As a result, association between the event and the application program by the control program can be easily performed.
However, in recent years, there have become widespread a service for automatically downloading and installing a corresponding control program (as an example, Microsoft's Windows (registered trademark) Update) when the device is connected to the host PC, and a service (pre-install driver) for including the control program in advance within the operating system. Therefore, there has become familiar a situation in which the control program can be used as long as the device is connected to the host PC. As a result, an opportunity where the control program is installed earlier than installation of the application programs has increased. In such a case, the application program has not been installed when the control program is installed, and accordingly the control program cannot associate the event with the application program. Therefore, there is a problem that a user has to manually associate the control program with the application program after installation of the application program.
As a result, when an event occurs, the user cannot determine which application program is to be executed, and instead troublesome tasks are needed for displaying a list of application programs and causing the user to select a desired application program from the list.